Pervasive informatics in intelligent spaces for living and working

Informatics is the study of information through its lifetime, relating the creation, management, distribution and utilisation of information in scientific and economic activities. In this information economy, human beings benefit from the effective use of information in two particular types of environments: the built and social environments. The built environment provides shelters and modern buildings as physical infrastructure and social environment allows people to gather and interact socially. To understand the pervasiveness of information and to make use of the technologies to enhance the intelligence of the living and working spaces have been motivated by many factors, including increased energy saving and sustainability, and also comfort and productivity. Our research not only focus on the use of agent and pervasive technologies, but particularly on theory and methods to enable effective management of information to improve the interaction with the built environments for better working and living. The talk will start with motivating scenarios, discussion of semiotics to pervasive informatics, and examples of technical systems we developed in the Informatics Research Centre in Reading. An outlook to future issues will be discussed as part of the conclusion.